RAWALPINDI: Police have arrested prayer leader Khalid Jadoon on charges of fabricating evidence, which he had used to accuse Rimsha Masih of committing blasphemy by allegedly burning Quranic pages, Express News reported early on Sunday.

Express News correspondent Qamarul Munawar said that Hafiz Muhammad Zubair, who witnessed Jadoon adding pages of the Quran, recorded a statement with the Rawalpindi magistrate on Saturday.

According to Zubair’s account, he was sitting in Iteqaaf in the mosque when some people handed burnt pages to the prayer leader. After a little while, Jadoon added additional pages of the Quran to the pile.

Zubair, in his statement added that three other people present with him in the mosque asked Jadoon why he was adding documents to the pile of burnt paper, to which prayer leader said that such an act was necessary to strengthen their case.

Munawar reported that Islamabad police has now arrested Jadoon who are now questioning him.

Rimsha has been in custody since she was arrested more than two weeks ago accused of burning Quranic papers, in breach of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. According to medical reports Rimsha is 14 year old minor, and has a mental age below her real age.

Reader Comments (123)

If the case is established against this particular Mullah, Rimsha should be released immediately and the a case of blasphemy should be registered against the prayer leader, no matter if the sky falls on earth.

our focus should be on innocence of Ramesha, i believe from the 1st day that its a hatched case, a baseless & planted one, whether a specific act is blasphemy or not; its another aspect which is not relevant in Ramesha’s case, her innocent is proved as police arrested the responsible….

Let this Mullah feel the wrath of the Law which he so loves and upholds and even lied and munipleted to blame an innocent child. Let the so called Blasphemy Law be strictly enforced on him. A taste of his own medicine would cure him and many with bad intentions. Recommend

I am pessimistic about further investigations and subsequent punishment. Nothing can be expected from the judicial system which has failed to punish a monster like Mumtaz Qadri rather showered rose petals on him. Pathetic!!

Maybe there is hope for Pakistan after all? However — a child with diminished capacity should have never been arrested regardless of what was burned — and someone please explain why the child remains in jail.

Fake cases of blasphemy have increased since death penalty was included in the law. Mullas and other vested interests will continue to abuse this law. Judges and police are under constant threat if they side with the innocent. This law must be abolished or at least a high level committee at province level should decide to register the case.

People like this prayer leader need to be dealt with as harshly as possible under the law.

Not only did this man lie, fabricate evidence and in fact himself commit the very ‘Blasphemy’ (burning pages of the Quran deliberately) that he accused an innocent girl of doing, but he essentially tried to ‘commit murder’ by lying and falsely implicating an innocent girl who could ave received the death sentence!

If found guilty, this person must be handed out an exemplary punishment for inciting hatred, violence and for accusing an innocent child as these types of incidentsare tranishing the image of Islam and the Pakistani society in the entire world.
Poor Rimsha Masih and her family deserve our utmost sympathy, compassion and an apology for failing to act as a nation.
Good work by the authorities in arresting this prayer leader. It is time to stand up against and denounce such cruelty and injustice in the name of religion against our weaker, vulnerable fellow citizens.

He is supposed to be a religious man but he has sinned most horrendously by falsifying evidence against an innocent girl (a child) on grounds of blasphemy. People like this bearded mullah give Pakistan a bad name worldwide. Pakistan would be a wonderful, modern and prosperous nation if madrassahs and mullahs were banned. Religion is opium for the people who become so addicted that they cannot discern between right and wrong, between good and bad, between wrongdoing and fairness. Unfortunately, Pakistanis do not have the healthy, questioning minds that contribute to nation building and produce better leaders. It’s time to change and, most importantly, mend fences with your neighbours (particularly India) without whom you cannot progress any further. Recommend

So many conspiracies. We don’t know whom to trust. A judicial enquiry must be conducted & only after this should people be released. Jadoon could have added pages, but even then some pages have been burnt which itself blasphemy.

Now is time to set an example for such lunatics (real satanic and kafir) and accordingly punish him as the law says and that is death penalty. Law is very clear on it and if any Mullah protest, they be accounted for with iron fist to set an example.

So this prayer leader deliberately created false evidence against a young 14 year old mentally challenged girl and he has been arrested for taht reason. We will see how long he is kept in custody. Judges independence will become very evident if he gets bail in fewer days than poor Rimsha did.

But I have a more pertinent question to ask. If he inserted some semi burnt pages of Quran to the pile, that means he burnt those pages himself. Should he then not be charged for blasphemy and tried for that as well? After all unlike poor illiterate Rimsha, this prayer leader was fully aware about what he was burning.

The girl, her family and the neighbor hood, all must be compensated for their pain, suffering and mental anguish caused by this Mullah. Those who physically attacked the child must be charged for their crime. A collective financial penalty must be imposed to deter involvement of crowd in such cases.

But nothing mentioned above is possible in Pakistan, the land of the pure Islamic conspirators.

Empire strikes back. In honor of Rimsha abolish the Blasphemy law or bare minimum amend it to make it applicable in rarest of rare cases. Wonder how many others were arrested and persecuted maliciously.

I had a feeling this was a planned event. I did mention this in my previous comments related to this event. I am pleased to see a good Muslim finally had the courage to tell the truth. How can a Muslim do this, put Quran pages in trash to get others punished for Blasphemy.

There may not be enough evidence unless police can recover Quran from Mullah’s residence with torn pages or if they still have burned pages that may carry this Mullah’s finger prints. Lot of Muslims / Mullahs will stand with this guy to protect him.

Good news. I hope that the young child Rimsha will soon be united with her family.

This incident proves that the Blasphemy Law has no place in a country like Pakistan. Since it consists of 98% Muslim population who claim to live their life for Islam & by Islamic laws. No Muslim will dare to commit blasphemy of any kind. As for the non-Muslim Pakistanis, those innocent folks are already living a life of utter fear that they can’t even dream of committing any such acts.

Hence it only seems to be used as a tool of exploitation by the illiterate Mullahs who by their stupid actions bring shame to the country as well as to those scholars of Islam who are trying hard to educate the people about the real Islam and its teachings. We Muslims living in US and other non-Muslim countries know very well what level of embarrassment we have to face when such incident takes place in Pakistan.

Hence forth the law should be abolished or at least made inactive for at least a foreseeable future. Islam is not in any danger in Pakistan.

Another proof that blasphemy law is being abused by people for their vested interests. This law must be abolished or at least registration of case must be done only after a high level investigation team. This high level investigation team must be constituted at provincial level.

he is a real blasphemous!! The minorities should be protected against the misuse of the current blasphemy law!! Which unfortunately is being used to suppress the minorities; usurp their rights n’ properties and personal animosities!!Recommend

Religious bigots like Jadoon and others of his ilk are gross anachronisms in our times. And I mean religious bigots of all descriptions, not just mullahs. It is high time they died out like the dinosaurs. Only poverty, lack of education, regimented indoctrination and exclusion from socioeconomic mainstream life can possibly produce such specimens, so these root causes must also be addressed.

Testing time for Pakistan. God help the Pakistan Government if it can not provide necessary protection to the innocent 14 year-old girl, and the prayer leader goes scot free. There are a large number of loonies out on the streets who will want to kill or burn the poor child.

@Saleem: “These so called religious leaders have turned society upside down. He must be given exemplary punishment so that other dare not do the same.”"
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Soon lawyers will be showering this guy with rose petals.

Now that there’s been a turn about in this case, it would be interesting to hear the veiw that lawyer whose veiws were aired a few days ago and should the big gun of the clergy have something to add now.

Oh people of Pakistan.
Our lawmakers are too scared to amend the blasphemy law. I challenge the existing Government to even recommend any changes in the parliament. They are only interested in changing laws that don’t suit them politically, such as the contempt of court law. This so called democracy is a gift for Pakistan and we deserve this because we brought these people to power.
With love,
A Pakistani

@Mohammad Ali Siddiqui: 101 percent I support you and many in Pakistan also. Inshallah, I will stand next to you when the citizens of Pakistan decide to take any physical action like a long march or protest.

The judge is complimented for his decision along with the ET correspondent and the persons in Ittekaaf. The voice of conscience is waking up and this molvi should get physically lashed for his irreligious and heretical act.

@Ateeb: Mumtaz qadri is on death row, he’s only a hero because people appreciate his stance on upholding a religious obligation when mr. Taseer tried to change it. In Islam anyone who blasphemes should be sentenced to death, but by the state and not due to vigilante justice.
As for this disgraceful maulvi he should be punished severely for the unrest he created, a minimum would be life sentence. it should be a lesson to all us Muslims to be patient and rational when confronted by such matters instead of shunning an entire community.

The guy Khalid Jadoon shall be charged with blasphemy and made an example. But am sure very soon his accomplices will activate gang people to make him hero like murderer of Salman Taseer Mr. Qadri the QatilRecommend

Salute to Hafiz Muhammad Zubair, who showed the courage to record his statement against the culprit Khalid Jadoon by adding pages of the Quran.
The girl should be freed and Hafiz Muhammad Zubair should be given protection as he may be murdered by the sinister gang.Recommend

I saw a news report that on the incident scene the Imam of the local mosque asked people to burn Rimsha alive, I believe he is the same Imam. How disturbing is the fact that mullas are abusing Islam for their sins, this Imam tampered the evidence, spoke a lie and asked people to burn the poor girl alive and Police beat Rimsha and her mother under pressure of complainants to avoid unrest. It is the most solid proof to the fact that blasphemy laws are being used to persecute and kill innocent minorities.

Khalid Jadoon from Abbottabad a black spot over our City, Ruined the witness in Case of Rimsha Christian. This bad man must stop to enter into Our City and I request to all Muslims of Abbottabad (Hazara) including Christians (Biship of Abbottabad) to stand and bring out the rallies against this bad man Qari Khalid Jadoon. This is our Islamic religious duty…..

I feel shame being muslim myself, imagine for a moment why would a small girl would do such kind of act? why not fellow muslims understand this? if we start killing all minorioties in this country than a time will come when we start killing our own self. I humbly request all muslims to come out and for God sake support this non muslim girl. if not body seeing us right now, than tommorow Allah will not forgive us as we exploit His name for the sake of worldy matters.

Hating your Fellow country men just because the have a Different religion , and going to the extent of burning the Pages of a Sacred book ! why ? o why ?
Dont hate Us so much .Pakistani Christians love Pakistan as much as you Do !

@Cautious: “Maybe there is hope for Pakistan after all? However — a child with diminished capacity should have never been arrested regardless of what was burned — and someone please explain why the child remains in jail.”

It was preplanned event from beginning to end. Girl was picked up because she was mentally retarded and Mullah knew she won’t be able to explain things. This was done to terrorize Christians living in the area. This just shows Muslims can go very low to trap innocent people. This guy torn pages of Quran to get this girl and her family in trouble.

A good Muslim found the courage to speak up and should be protected. Mullah’s follower may kill this guy before even he has chance to tell the court what he saw.

Please, please, let this girl go. She is too young to understand what is holy what is not. Urdu and Arabic look the same to untrained eyes, how is she going to know?
A person can be held responsible to the degree of one’s knowledge.
She is no Abu Jahl! She is a child, for God’s sake!
The Prophet (peace be upon him) would probably speak to her with love and kindness, and explain!
Fiqh means ‘understanding’. Fools have too little of it.
I am a Muslim, and I feel like hugging this kid like a father, and explain softly about her mistakes, if she indeed has committed it.
When your heart cannot see, what good are your eyes?

this is the reality which will be behind the each case.religious leaders are putting the holy verses in the garbage nd blaming inocent people. how much this law provides power to hange non muslim pakistanis. we are selfly defaming the islam and teachings of holy prophet s.a.w.w

What if a ‘Qadri’ had already assassinated Rimsha by the time news like this one came forward? Those (including the lawyer community) need to understand the danger in lawlessnessand vigilantism that they are encouraging.

Get the psychoanalysis and medical report of the girl, in-case he was afraid she would call the authorities for his other sinister acts or plans about her(God Forbids). With the public, lawyers and Judiciary so inclined-to or scared-of extremists_ the National Assembly should let the Provinces Decide about the applications and interpretation of the Blasphemy law sighting their local extremism or moderation in public sentiments.

Does anyone really understand the meaning of trauma!Can they comprehend how that poor child and her family must have felt when a crowd attacked their house,when that poor girl was put behind the bar!Do we have any moral fabric left in our society,imagine this maulvi talking of Quran and how the Quran will be a source of nijat to him in the lifehereafter.It is this kind of hypocracy which has made our society into what it is now.Do they really understand the real spirit of our religion and real love for our Holy Prophet peace be upon him if they had they would have been against all such unjust laws and not in their favour.No one should forget this that anyone of us can become target of this madness muslim or non-muslim,maulwi or non-maulvi if we will not stop this madness now.